


Those who call the Sea home know its Dangers the best

by BunnyBoi1998, Nikkie2571



Category: HBTUAS, How Best to Use A Sword, Original Work
Genre: Boys Kissing, Drowning, Gen, Kissing, M/M, Nudity, Public Nudity, Skinny Dipping, Swimming, and only sorta, human/mermaid hybrid, merfolk, nearly, swimming nude
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:48:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23730067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunnyBoi1998/pseuds/BunnyBoi1998, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikkie2571/pseuds/Nikkie2571
Summary: Dylan's mother was a mermaid, and his father a human. Dylan is human too, except he kinda has something extra. Dylan has gills.Fanficion for AntagonizedPenguin'sHow Best to Use a Swordseries, based on his recent lore dump aboutinterspecies breeding!
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Comments: 7
Kudos: 16





	Those who call the Sea home know its Dangers the best

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AntagonizedPenguin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AntagonizedPenguin/gifts).



> it only took me like an hour to write this, and it is also unbeta'd, so please be gentle with it :)

Dylan looked at the water as it pushed and pulled on the shoreline, reminding himself to take a breath with each rise and fall of the waves. His lungs burned a little each time, feeling overfull as they always did, feeling too small to hold the air he needed to live. His gills itched, crumpled and dry as they often were when he was on land.

Breathing was hard, so hard. It was never enough, no matter which way he did it, in air or in water. Using his gills required filling his mouth with water, letting it flow down into his gills, so he had no way of doing both, no way of ever feeling like he wasn’t running out of air. He had to be careful, so careful, to remember to breathe.

But watching Zale swim was worth it, he thought, despite the almost literal breathtaking quality of his form. The risk of holding his breath, just to watch the dark-skinned boy move in the water was totally worth it.

Despite his mother having been merfolk, he thought that the way Zale swam was much more elegant than how he did. In fact, he didn’t swim all that well at all. Even though his gills worked just fine, gave him enough breath to be underwater constantly, his lungs would burn, his brain would scream, his body would demand he take a breath. No one could swim well like that, with all the noise and sensation buzzing through them.

And yet, he wanted to swim with Zale. He’d been wanting to ask since the first time he saw the boy here, weeks ago. They lived in a fishing town, on the coast, so swimming was common, was taught to everyone, but very few did it for fun. And that had fascinated Dylan, had caught his attention, even more than Zale’s face had when he came out of the water. They’d been educated together, like all the kids in the town, and that’s the only reason Dylan even knew the other’s name.

Dylan stood up. Maybe today he would-

Zale got out of the water, naked and wet, and Dylan turned around instantly, ready to escape back home. But then a voice rang out over the waves.

“Dylan!” Zale’s voice called.

Blushing and embarrassed, he turned around to face the naked boy.

“Yeah?” he called back.

“Why do you just sit there and watch me swim all the time?”

Dylan didn’t answer.

“Wouldn’t you prefer to join me?” Zale asked.

Dylan looked to the side nervously, silent.

Zale waved an arm invitingly. “Please, come join me! Swimming together will be more fun than swimming alone, I promise!”

Dylan stared for one moment, two, before walking carefully towards the waterline. He stopped only long enough to abandon his clothes somewhere dry, before meeting up with Zale.

“I’m, uh, not all that good at swimming,” Dylan muttered.

Zale shrugged. “Do you enjoy it?”

Did he enjoy his lungs burning? Did he enjoy his body screaming? Did he enjoy the feel of water around him, between his fingers and toes? The cool caress of the liquid in his gills, in his mouth, the feeling of the flow of the ocean surrounding him and going through him?

“Yeah,” Dylan mumbled.

Zale smiled. “Then that’s all that matters!”

Dylan smiled back. “Okay.”

And then he dove into the water, feeling his gills bloat up and his mind go blank in that single moment of pure bliss that water always gave him. Water was his friend, even though his lungs hated him, even though his mind screamed, the water was there to help. Focussing as best he could on his body, his movement, his muscles, and not his lungs, Dylan followed Zale as he swam deep and up and around and in winding patterns, as they enjoyed the water, as they swam like fish at sea.

But then a sharp pain came from his foot and Dylan reflexively gulped, swallowing water, inhaling water, filling his small irritable lungs with fluid they hated. He couldn’t-, he couldn’t breathe! His lungs burned and his mind sang a song of pain and desperation.

 _Inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale!_ It chanted, but he couldn’t. There was no space, no space for air when his lungs were full of water, when he was surrounded by water.

His vision went fuzzy, even though he knew his gills would work without him. His mind was working against him as he kicked awkwardly to the surface.

Breaking out of the water, he opened his mouth and felt his gills collapse as the water from his mouth drained out through them. He tried to suck in air, but there was nothing. He needed to empty his lungs.

He coughed, but all it did was push him down into the water, making his lungs ache more, burn brighter the longer the water was in them.

An arm wrapped around him and pulled him and suddenly Dylan was on all fours, facing down as he vomited water onto the beach.

“Holy fuck, Dylan, what happened!?” Zale yelled, voice hysterical and worried.

“Just-,” cough, “swal-,” cough, “lowed some,” cough, “water.” cough.

Zale blinked at him. “But you’re okay now?”

Dylan smiled softly. “Yeah… thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Zale replied. “But… since you now owe me-,”

“Excuse you!”

“-can you maybe tell me why you like to watch me swim?”

Dylan blushed and looked back down at the sand.

“You…” he trailed off for a moment.

“Your swimming is pretty…. Like you,” he forced himself to say.

A hand gently guided his face to turn back to Zale, the dark boy smiling brightly.

“That’s good to know, you know? That the pretty boy watching me swim thinks I’m pretty too.”

Dylan blushed a deep red. “Can I kiss you?” he mumbled.

Zale giggled and pressed his lips to Dylan’s.

And even as it took Dylan’s breath away… he kissed back.

**Author's Note:**

> Dylan is welsh for "Son of the sea" and Zale is greek for "Sea-Strength"
> 
> If you like my stories you can come join my discord! discord.gg/tBGA5fU


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